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| PEACE PATIENCE, 2003, SITE SPECIFIC, INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION ARTIST'S CARD GAME SAKSHI GALLERY, MUMBAI ARTCONCEPT ST. PETERSBERG, RUSSIA |
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| ‘The War against Terrorism’ has provoked many views from international communities worldwide and none of us can remain unaffected by the moral, humanitarian, philosophical and political justifications for the US-Iraq war, 2003/04. ‘Peace Patience’ takes its inspiration from the US military’s ‘Deck of Infamy’ Playing Cards released in Iraq during the Iraq-America War. By presenting itself as an interactive artwork, ‘Peace Patience’ engages the viewers in playing a game of ‘Patience’ with a deck of modified cards, given a set of rules to achieve a desired outcome. The work involves a set-up of a table with 2 chairs and a deck of playing cards. The playing cards are modified. The set of rules to play the game are provided. Players play to achieve PEACE. The striving for PEACE will therefore be influenced by the strategy and viewpoint of each player. Players must play to find out the possible outcome of their strategies given the conditionality of the sequence of cards that each shuffled deck provides always keeping in consideration the least collateral damage. The cards are unconventional – they do not have suits or heads, instead they have some of the key words of the war, to be interpreted by the players and declared aloud as part of their strategy. In doing so, players with different views of the war converse through their strategy and watch the outcome of it. Some of the cards are worded: AIR RAID AL QAIDA ARMY CAMPAIGN CASUALTIES COALITION JIHAD WAR ON TERRORISM WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION A live video of this game is shown on a TV monitor for the viewers to see in another room/location, so that they do not know who is playing the game, rather, can only see the particular sequencing of each set of players – hence for the viewer, it is controlled by external forces. The game hopes to engage people with questions – how events are influenced by circumstances not in one’s control as well as how each person’s view of ‘PEACE’ finds a different route of expression and prioritising. The game hopes to a present an insight into the dialogue of war, its ramifications and consequences, given the diversity of opinions and strategies of any two players. The engagement forefronts the issues of ‘mindfulness’ and ‘objectivity', deeply rooted in Oriental Philosophy. Viewers can experience both aspects of the philosophical and moral outcomes of the war- they can choose to be participants or viewers. |